The Beast from the East

Winter has arrived with a vengeance with the storm being called The Beast from the East. I first read about this in The Times newspaper weather column about 3 weeks ago. They noted that there had been a Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) and that when that happens, the high level polar winds that circulate west to east can be affected. The stratosphere is about 9km up in the sky. The aeroplanes we see over Wigton are flying just into the stratosphere. It's an odd place because instead of it getting colder as you go up, the air temperature rises due to ultra-violet heating the ozone layer. I need to read more to understand the physics of this event more fully but I was really impressed that a warning that I read 3 weeks ago with scientific reasons given has turned out to be accurate. Last time this happened was 2013. You can look back at the blog to see that the summer wasn't too bad afterwards! https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/learn-about-the-weather/how-weather-works/sudden-stratospheric-warming  and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_stratospheric_warming